by 
The sun shone brightly in the pale blue sky overhead as the group moved through the trees. They moved quickly and silently, like shadows. On the rare occasions that they stopped, they were barely noticeable, for their dark clothing blended in with the shaded trees in which they stood. They were cautious, watching for any sign of an ambush or indication that they were being followed. In fact, thing seemed to be going quite well for them. It was for this reason that they were being particularly vigilant in their security.
“Skilled, but not quite skilled enough,” whispered a voice from somewhere in the trees as they reached a small clearing, startling the small group. They had not known anyone had managed to get this close to them. “You would think that warriors such as yourselves would be harder to sneak up on.”
“Who’s there,” one dared to ask, not recognizing the voice that taunted them from the shadows.
“Oh, no one in particular, Kaito,” was the reply. “You’re new to the force. Ah, and so are you, Kdachi.”
The group of warriors looked at each other in concern; whoever this was, they knew who they were. They stepped closer to each other, creating a small circle with their backs to each other in an attempt to protect themselves and have a better chance of finding the owner of this threatening voice.
“How do you know who we are?” asked Kaito, trying to stall for time. Panic crept into his voice for he was, as the voice said, new to the force. He had joined shortly after Kdachi had. This was his first major mission and the calmness in this strange voice seemed to play on his nervousness.
“Oh, you know. I hear things.” The voice came from the easily identified position of directly behind him, but Kaito never heard this.
Kdachi and the third of the group, Ikazu Raiken, turned in shock in the direction of Kaito. Instead of Kaito, however, they saw a woman. She was dressed in a knee-length robe like what people usually wore when travelling through the desert, but it was cut down the front. This revealed the dark blue shorts and matching shirt she wore beneath her light blue robe. Kdachi and Ikazu stepped back quickly, scanning the area to find where Kaito was. They were horrified to see Kaito lying on the ground in a pool of blood that was oozing from a clearly fatal cut across the throat.
The woman held a bloody dagger before her and licked off some of the blood. She then smiled sweetly as the wind blew her chin-length brown hair across the blade, ice blue eyes flashing. “None of you are very experienced. No wonder you were simply messengers.”
The woman vanished, then, but that was nothing new to warriors, for they all knew the secret behind that trick. What they did not expect was the speed in which she moved from one place to another. Before Ikazu had time to react, he heard a gurgling sound to his left. He leapt to the right, getting far from the sound. He knew what it was, having been active for two years now; he had heard it far too often. Kdachi stood in shock before falling to the ground, blood spraying from the large slit across his throat. Ikazu winced, but kept alert, watching for the woman who was causing this death.
She had vanished again, but not for long. A sound behind him alerted him to her presence. He spun around, his katana beating off the stabbing attack of the woman. He backed away, trying to put some distance between himself and the blue clad woman. He had not gotten far when she surprised him yet again; she threw her dagger at him. He dodged to the side, barely avoiding a direct hit. While his balance was still off, the woman rushed forward, drawing two long knives out of the long sleeves of her robe. She stabbed at him with both blades, alternating between the left and right side, her arms simply a blue blur. Ikazu took more than one hit as he attempted to evade and block the attacks. Blood ran from his sides and from a gash in Ikazu’s ear telling him just how close that first thrown blade had come to ending his life. As the stabbing became faster and more attacks hit home, Ikazu wondered how much longer he would be able to continue blocking before she managed to kill him.
Just as he thought this, the woman changed tactics, elbowing him in the gut and knocking the wind out of him. She used this break in his defenses to reverse the hold on her dagger and stab Ikazu in the chest. Neither moved as they continued battling, though with their wills only for physical battling was no longer possible. Ikazu’s body finally gave in to the natural result of such an attack. He coughed once, the woman released her dagger, and he fell to his knees. He stared at the woman, a grimace on his face as his vision slowly faded.
“What is your name?” he managed to say, though the effort nearly choked him.
The woman smiled sweetly and, after brief contemplation, leaned down and grabbed the dagger still in his chest. “Temari,” she whispered and pulled free her bloodied dagger.
* * * *
Bano sat at his desk looking at the piece of paper the Kazekage had handed him. He nodded in silent understanding. Quater had attacked him earlier, an uncommon move for this man who preferred to deal in politics between Villages rather than start wars. Bano had suspected he knew the reason for the attack, but this paper confirmed it. He sighed and placed it back on his desk. “Let me explain,” he began.“Yes, please explain,” Q interrupted. He was standing on the other side of the room from Bano, arms crossed and a stern frown plastered on his face. Bano wondered if he would discover his face to be made of stone should he touch it, but he dared not in these circumstances. “I was merely coming to belay my suspicious that you were looking for the Keys to release that demon, but what I find before I even got to you is further proof that you are. We saw those warriors down at the entrance to Mountain’s Key Chamber. What do you think you’re doing, Bano? Kages are supposed to make sure those Keys are never found, yet you hunt for them? Explain yourself!”
Bano simply nodded, allowing no emotion to show on his face. Choosing his words carefully, he explained. “We received word a few months ago that Mist was hunting for the Keys. Some scouting missions into Mist revealed that, not only were they hunting for them, they had succeeded in removing their own from the location they kept it. Further searching brought me the location of all the other Keys. That list you found is the result of our research as of a couple weeks ago.”
Bano picked up the paper again. “We have gone down to ensure that our Key is still there and hasn’t been removed while we weren’t looking. We still don’t know about Inferno’s Key or your Key, though I’m hoping that we’ll know the location of both of those before long. Glacier refuses to let us know any information concerning theirs and we’re not about to go exploring to find out if it’s still there or not. We’re positive that Mist is the cause of all this because we learned that they moved theirs out of its Chamber. Shadow readily helped us by telling us that theirs was taken some time ago; they were about to bring it forward to the other Kages to begin the hunt for it. And Storm…”
“Storm lost theirs,” Q concluded with a roll of his eyes, knowing the contents of the page well. “Naturally they would lose something of such great importance. This isn’t good, Bano. This isn’t good at all.” He began to pace the room, his expression changed from anger to deep thought. This relieved Bano slightly, but the weight that had been lifted from his shoulders was more relief than he had expected. He had been working alone to locate the Keys for the past few months, simply sending secret messages via his warriors, unable to tell anyone the truth of what had happened. Now he could share the burden with someone.
Q stopped pacing and looked at Bano. “We can’t exactly walk into Mist and demand that they tell us where they put their Key. How did you plan on getting theirs back into safety?”
“My plan hadn’t gotten any farther than to confirm that Mist was trying to gather the Keys to release the demon. I had hoped to find that the information we received was incorrect; if it proved to be true, I was going to bring it up with you and anyone else we could trust.” Bano shrugged, admitting to himself that he had hoped Q would take over the matter. Things got done when he was in charge.
“Makes sense. Good thinking. Although you couldn’t have known that I was against this. Technically you could be playing right into my hands right now,” Q said, an evil grin on his face. He then grew serious again. “Bano, how did that paper mange to make it from the Mountain Village to Sand, anyway?”
Bano looked at the paper in his hands. He had rather hoped that mishap would not be brought up. “One of our dragons escaped a while ago. He flew right by and snatched some of the paper I had on my desk at the time. He flew all the way to Sand’s borders before the warriors I had sent there found him and returned with him. The paper vanished somewhere during that flight.”
Those dragons were the pride of Mountain, so one getting all the way to Sand without a trainer was a disaster. The expression of shame on Bano’s face made Q laugh, a welcome addition to the heavy atmosphere. Bano smiled as Q led him from the room. “Let’s go find our seconds-in-command and get this mess sorted out, shall we?”
* * * *
The Kage’s Palace was one of the few actual buildings in the Mountain Village. The Village was built inside an actual mountain. One enormous shaft ran from the top of the mountain to the base. An entrance into the Village was located at the midway point while several secret entrances were located closer to the base. Tunnels ran off in every direction from this central shaft with elevators carrying people and goods from one level to another. These tunnels were dotted with caves that were everything from homes to storage, stores to schools and everything else a Village normally had. At the very base of the mountain was a maze of tunnels where those living in the Village could hide should an enemy infiltrate the mountain. The Kage’s Palace was located just above these tunnels. The entrance to the Dragon Cave was below a wall of the Palace that was connected to the side of the mountain. The cave stretched beneath the Palace and the outside world, an opening in the roof allowing for sunlight. It also allowed the dragons within the Cave to journey into the world above, though they were still contained within a special barrier that allowed nothing living but small insects in and out. The dragons would come into this area to feed and bathe in the sun and puddles left after a rain.
These dragons were the pride of Mountain. They were small, the longest was about a foot long with a wingspan of the same length, but they had proved to be great companions in fights, using their abilities to heal, attack, or defend. Some also proved to be able to help with keeping Mountain alive, helping to grow crops and making water drinkable. The color of their scales dictated what ability each dragon had. They were trained by the members of the Ishi clan who had taken them to be their symbol.
These magical abilities were commonly known to anyone who knew that Mountain had tamed these dragons, however only the Ishi and few outside the clan knew the truth about this magic. The Ishi knew that dragons were not dumb creatures like the average dog or cat or even wild beasts that roamed the world. The dragons were fully capable of thought as any human and were capable of speech when they so chose. It was through use of telepathy that they accomplished this, and then they only spoke on rare occasions. While some dragons seemed to love to speak, some dragons only spoke once in their lifetime. This was during the Naming.
The Naming was the time when dragons would tell the Ishi what their name was. The Naming was not a ceremony, as outsiders would think if they were to hear the name; it was merely the name given to the moment dragons chose to tell an Ishi their name. Once a dragon had given their name to an Ishi, that dragon and the human bond and become partners and aid each other whenever they could. Some Ishi had been known to have as many as fifty partner dragons while some would be lucky to have one.
* * * *
“No way, he really attacked him in the Dragon Cave?” Toshii laughed as she and Yoyo walked the halls of the Kage’s Palace. “Was he really that blinded by anger or did he really think he could beat the Yamakage on his home turf?”Yoyo laughed along with Toshii, enjoying the relaxed nature of the conversation. Both girls knew something big was about to happen soon, but they planned to enjoy every free moment they had. “It was crazy. One moment I was filling out the paperwork at the entrance with him beside me, the next moment he’s gone and I get stuck dealing with the technicalities of someone entering before their paperwork is done! I raced down to the Cave as quickly as I could ‘cause I knew what would happen if things got too out of hand. He had been fuming since we got near here.”
“Well, it’s a good thing you got down there in time,” said Toshii as she opened a door that would lead to the Dragon Cave. “You would have been thrown into the position of Kazekage rather quickly.”
Yoyo winked as they descended the stairs. “I could only hope as much. He’s a resilient one, Quater. Now, let’s see who all is in here today!” Yoyo pushed open the heavy door at the bottom of the stairs and entered the Dragon Cave, eyes adjusting quickly to the softer light.
The dragons in the cave grew excited as they noticed the new arrivals, flying faster and in tight circles overhead. They flew lower to the ground with each rotation until they were forced to fly back into the air or land on the ground or one of the two girls as they sat. They knew Toshii to be one of the highest ranking Ishi members and recognized Yoyo from her many previous visits she had made to the Cave. Yoyo traveled among the villages more than Q did, frequenting Storm and Mountain the most.
“You know, Yoyo,” Toshii said as she stroked the neck of Shiroi, a young white dragon that had bonded with Toshii. “These dragons all defend Bano, even though most of them bonded with other Ishi members. It wasn’t even that there was a fight in their Cave, it was because it was Bano being attacked.” She stopped and grinned at Yoyo. “And they love you.”
Yoyo laughed and pulled a blue dragon off her head. “That is only because I come here far too often. I shouldn’t be becoming this friendly with another clan’s family. In fact, I probably shouldn’t be here at all while my Kage is having a fit in your Kage’s office!” She laughed, but she was interrupted by a black dragon that had just collided with her face, knocking her over backwards with the force with which he hit.
“Hey, watch where you’re going!” Toshii scolded, grabbing the black out of the air as it attempted to escape. “You could have hurt her and you know full well that she means no harm!”
“Ah, Yoshi, let him go. There’s no harm in getting lost in flight,” Yoyo laughed as she took the black from Toshii’s hand. “Besides, this is one of the few unnamed ones left in your care. You don’t want to scare him too badly; he might never find someone for his Naming.”
“Look at you, talking like you know so much about dragons,” Toshii said, her grin returning in full force. “You’d think you were an Ishi with that kind of thinking!” She paused, a look of realization on her face. “You hope one of them decides to bond with you!”
The expression of horror on Yoyo’s face simply made Toshii laugh. “I told you, I am Kousa, you and your dragons are Ishi. There’s no way I would want to try to become one of you goofy Ishi! Though I wouldn’t mind; these creatures are beyond helpful,” she added after a moment’s pause. This just made Toshii laugh all the more, and the dragons around also laughed, for they knew the truth of Yoyo’s statement only too well.
“Well, it looks like we have a party going on in the Dragon Cave!”
Toshii and Yoyo turned as one to face the new speaker. “Darkflame, good of you to come down. Please tell me you brought something to eat. I’m starved! I think I’ll faint of hunger if I don’t get food soon,” Yoyo cried, swooning dramatically. Toshii’s laughter only grew the more.
“No food, sorry, Sand,” Darkflame said with a roll of his eyes. “I’m just here to find you guys. Bano and Q are looking for you. It seems that—Urei!” Darkflame ducked to avoid a rather painful hug from the enthusiastic blue dragon that had just dove toward him; Toshii and Yoyo laughed. Urei circled once an contented itself with landing on Darkflame’s head and nestling into his hair. Darkflame winced and concluded what he had attempted to say. “Looks like they have new business for you guys to attend to.”
“Figures they’d wreck a perfectly good dragon party,” Toshii said as she stood and dusted off her dress.
“Yes, they would,” Yoyo agreed, following suit. “The business at hand seems to be pretty heavy, though, so we have some good fights to look forward to, I think.”
Yoyo and Toshii were about to leave the Cave when Darkflame shouted, “Oh, by the way, a little group from Inferno arrived just a bit ago. Things are about to get going.”
Yoyo glanced at her companion and smiled. “Told you.”
* * * *
A lone Sand warrior dressed in her white desert robes wandered down one of the tunnels in the Mountain Village. She had been separated from her group almost immediately upon entering the mountain; her Kage had run ahead leaving his two companions in shock. The other, Yoyo, while not necessarily recovering faster, ran faster and managed to catch up with him somewhere between the entrance to the Village and their destination of the Kage’s Palace. This lone warrior, SickSelfishSycho, had no love of politics and figured she would be found when it was time for them to leave. Until then, she wandered through the many streets and tunnels of the unique village. On her journey, she found the residential tunnels and some of the tunnels home to businesses. It was after she had been walking for an hour that she ran into trouble.
She had not expected trouble when she had entered the tunnel. It was simply the next tunnel on the way down, but when she entered, she understood the danger it posed. She considered going back and finding another tunnel, but went against her better judgment and continued forward. She looked neither to the left nor to the right, not wanting to invite problems, but it was impossible to escape them for long. She had gotten nearly half way through the tunnel when disaster struck.
It was a gradual process, one that SSS was oblivious to until it struck her with full force. The feeling was like being hit in the gut with a blacksmith’s hammer. She turned to the right, the direction from which the attack came.
“Oh no,” she muttered. She tried to run away, walk away, crawl away. Her feet led her forward, ever forward. She knew this would not end well if she continued, but she could not stop. “I don’t have any money!” she explained, trying to halt the march. Her feet continued to move her despite her protests. Finally, she arrived at her destination.
“Cinnamon rolls,” she gasped, staring at the man before her.
“That’s right,” the large jovial man said, beaming with pride. “Mountain’s famous cinnamon rolls, made with the best cinnamon and the freshest dough. The creamiest butter you’ve ever laid eyes upon comes with a batch of three!”
SSS looked with despair about the room in which she found herself. She was in a bakery. Shelves were loaded with fresh loaves of bread and sweet rolls and jellies to put on the loaves of bread and sweet rolls with jellies in them and many other delicious baked good. Right beside the baker was a large plate of cinnamon rolls; Mountain had found SickSelfishSycho’s weakness.
“I have no money,” she managed to whisper as she continued to gaze at the delicious treat. She said it as much to the baker as to herself, trying to get herself out of the shop before she put the Sand Village in debt.
The baker nodded, understanding her predicament. “Well, no money means no cinnamon rolls. You’re probably better off leaving this particular tunnel,” he added with a smile. He moved to stand in front of the plate of cinnamon goodness, though that did not stop the smell of cinnamon from reaching the poor girl.
“Right, leave the… I should… Um…” SSS stammered, trying to clear her head of thoughts of food in general. Her stomach rumbled then, snapping her out of her state of shock. “Sorry! They smell delicious.” She darted from the store, leaving behind the smell of cinnamon and the laughter of the baker.
The poor Sand nin followed the baker’s advice and left the tunnel. She realized that she had found a tunnel full of food stores and restaurants. Her stomach growled again; she was hungry. She wondered what her chances were of finding Q and Yoyo and getting a meal out of them. Then the absolute worst thing that SSS could imagine happened.
Someone walked up behind her with a bag full of cinnamon rolls.
“You look hungry,” a kind voice said, followed by a chuckle. “Care to join me on a stroll. I’ll share my snack with you.”
SSS turned to examine her new companion. He had short brown hair that was spiked in the front. He wore a T-shirt of the typical Mountain green that most Mountain warriors wore and khaki shorts with hiking boots. Her eyes were drawn to his gloved hands; they had a bag of cinnamon rolls in their grip.
“I would follow you anywhere, kind stranger,” she said, throwing him a wink and a smile. “The name’s SickSelfishSycho, by the way. Came all the way from Sand.”
“Zergio, born and raised in this hole in the ground.” The Mountain warrior laughed at his own joke. “What brings you to Mountain, then? It couldn’t have been the cinnamon rolls if you didn’t bring any money.”
SSS took the gooey pastry the young man offered her. “I came with a couple of other Sand warriors, but we got separated not long after we arrived. They were headed to the Kage’s Palace. I’m not much on politics so I figured it was not much of a loss. Until I got trapped in that bakery back there, that is. I was wondering what a life in politics would look like for me.”
Zergio laughed again, apparently a common trait among those dwelling in this Village. “It’s a good thing I found you, then. The Yamakage sent for me and I was heading there. We’ll find your group and get you sent on your way. I don’t suppose I’d know them?”
SSS laughed at the thought of a warrior not knowing her companion. “The Kazekage and Sand’s Clan Leader. They packed me up and then left me at the front door!”
“Ah, that’s the leaders for you,” Zergio laughed, taking a great bite of his cinnamon roll.
They continued their walk in companionable silence, taking a spiraling path that encircled the entire open area in the center of the mountain called the Shaft. This path was normally used for larger and heavier carts that could not be moved from one level to another via the elevators, though people tended to use it during times of heavier traffic if they only had to go up or down a few levels. Zergio and SSS walked it now to enjoy the taste of their cinnamon rolls. They ran out of cinnamon rolls three levels from the Kage’s Palace.
“So what do you think they’re doing,” Zergio wondered allowed as they continued the slow decent into the depths of the mountain. “It’s not often two Kages get together on such short notice.”
SSS just shrugged. She had no idea why they had come to Mountain. Conversation along the way had shown that Yoyo did not know why, either. Both girls had given up on understanding Q’s intentions of coming to this Village, but both also knew it was urgent and they would be informed on the matter at hand when the time came. Until then, SSS would just enjoy the memories of eating her cinnamon rolls and Yoyo would probably be stuck watching after Q to make sure he did not do something incredibly stupid. She was about to give voice to these thoughts, when she saw something that made her stop short.
“Three Kages,” she whispered. Zergio followed her gaze. Entering the Kage’s Palace was a group of three warriors. Their red clothing marked them as belonging to the Inferno Village. The one in the front of this group, a young woman with long black hair, was recognized from previous encounters by both Sand and Mountain warriors alike: the Kajikage.
“What in the world is going on here?” Zergio asked, breaking into a run, SSS a couple steps behind him. “Three Kages? This is ridiculous.”
“Ridiculous might be the word,” SSS commented. “But I think the phrase ‘this bodes ill for everyone involved’ is better suited to the circumstances at hand.”
Last edited by Yoyo on Thu Jul 15 2010, 20:31; edited 2 times in total
Toshiro~ ^_^ x3
